War in the Streets: Tactical Lessons from the Global Civil War

The idea for this zine was to collect a series of situated and intelligent reflections on black blocs, street clashes and related tactics of confrontation. Each of the texts collected here tries to spell out in concrete ways what seems like it has worked and what hasn’t, while trying to be clear about how each tactic relates to the larger insurrectional process.

Given the current US climate of increasingly open social hostility and the more ‘mass’ nature of some of the rage already foresee- able in the coming years, the time seemed right to assemble a few strategic pathmarks to help us orient and operate effectively on shifting sands.

While the texts emerge from very different moments and places, what links them is the e ort to examine the limits and potentials of street combat in their specific context (which was, broadly speaking: the waning alter globalization malaise of the late 2000’s; Occupy & the global “squares-movement” sequence of 2011-12; and the 2016 Loi Travail revolts in France).

As one of our authors puts it, “the practice of conspiracy, of strategic thought, of breathing together, must be a commons of skills and new forms that we all draw from.” We hope this zine can serve that purpose, in however small a way.